Alliance Alert: We joined ten other statewide behavioral health advocacy organizations in Albany on Tuesday to preview our call for increased investments in New York’s community-based human services.
Together, we are calling for a 3.4% Targeted Inflationary Increase (TII) to help agencies keep pace with rising costs and a dedicated, multi-year workforce investment to improve wages and retain essential staff. Workforce investments are investments in recovery. When trusted workers leave, people are often forced to rebuild relationships, retell traumatic experiences, and risk losing progress in their recovery. We must invest in the people and agencies that provide the consistent, community-based support New Yorkers need.
As we prepare for the upcoming legislative session, the Alliance will also continue hosting regional forums across New York State to hear directly from people with lived experience, families, providers, and community advocates about their most pressing budget and policy priorities. These grassroots conversations are essential to shaping our legislative agenda and ensuring that our advocacy reflects the needs and experiences of the people and communities we represent. We want to hear what is working, where gaps remain, and what changes are needed to strengthen voluntary, recovery-oriented services, protect rights, and expand opportunities for community integration.
We are also excited to announce that the Alliance’s Annual Legislative Day will take place on Tuesday, February 9, 2027, in Albany. This important advocacy event will bring together community members from across the state to meet with legislators, share their experiences, and advocate for the funding and policy changes needed to build a stronger mental health and substance use service system.
Stay tuned for more information about our upcoming regional forums and Legislative Day, including opportunities to participate and help shape our priorities for the 2027 legislative session. Together, we can ensure that the voices of people with lived experience and our communities remain at the center of New York’s policy and budget decisions.
Human Service Groups Launch Early Campaign Ahead of State Funding Fight
By Dan Clark | Capitol Confidential | October 22, 2026
It’s not a sure bet that Gov. Kathy Hochul will win reelection in November but that’s the likely outcome based on the public polling. And while it’s not due for about three months, Hochul’s budget division last week put out its call letter to agencies as it prepares the executive proposal.
That means it isn’t too early for entities that rely on state government funding to start making budget requests.
For many of those groups, it’s actually the state that relies on them to provide mandated human services. And a two-decade-old state law requires the state to increase their funding each year with a cost of living adjustment tied to inflation.
Those increases weren’t consistent when former Gov. Andrew Cuomo was in office. But Hochul secured a 5.4% increase in her first state budget, passed in 2022.
That was followed by a 4% increase in 2023, a 2.84% increase in 2024, a 2.6% increase in 2025 and a 2.7% increase in the budget adopted earlier this year.
“Over the last several years, the Legislature and the governor have been very responsive to the (Consumer Price Index) needs,” said Glenn Liebman, CEO of the Mental Health Association of New York State. “But the reality is, we’re so far behind.”
The groups say they lack the funding to adequately and consistently provide services because they didn’t receive regular increases during the Cuomo era. That impacts things like mental health care and outpatient substance use programs.
Part of the problem is that the increases they receive from the state aren’t enough to cover higher operating costs or support competitive salaries for their staff.
“You can make any investment you want to enlarge the service delivery system but if you don’t have the staff to staff it, you do not have access to care,” said Lauri Cole, executive director of the Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare.
That problem, Cole predicted, will only get worse after new Medicaid eligibility requirements take effect on Jan. 1. The new rules are expected to result in fewer people receiving health coverage.
So advocates are trying a new approach this year. They’re first seeking a 3.4% increase in funding from the state.
But they’re also asking for a three-year commitment from Hochul and lawmakers to set aside separate funding that would allow them to increase the salaries of workers who earn less than $125,000. The groups eventually want an overall wage increase of $3.30 per hour.
It’s not unlike what happened in 2024, when the state budget mandated that the groups use part of their new state funding for staff wages. But this time, they’re proposing a structure early in hopes of being heard by Hochul before she finalizes her spending plan.